This invention relates to new alloys containing gold, vanadium, and, as a third constituent, yttrium or scandium or mixtures thereof. Additionally, the alloys may optionally contain niobium. In compositions including minor amounts of vanadium, yttrium and/or scandium, optional minor amounts of niobium, and a major amount of gold, the alloys are particularly useful as brazing materials and find a preferred use in the formation of hermetic corrosion-resistant seals or brazed joints for electrical lead-ins, particularly of the ceramic-metal seal types. The most preferred use of these alloys lies in the manufacture of ceramic-metal electrical lead-ins for implantable electromedical devices such as cardiac pacemakers and the like.
The invention also relates to the use of high gold content alloys for the metallization of ceramic materials such as alumina and other ceramics.
An important feature of the invention lies in the direct application of the brazing alloy to a ceramic-metal seal without prior metallization of the ceramic. For example, if the ceramic is alumina, it may be brazed with these alloys without prior metallization.